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kaylinalexanderbooks · 1 month

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Hair for the brown ask game?

Thanks for the ask!! (From this world building ask game).

Answering for Alium, the alternate dimension in The Secret Portal.

HAIR - What kinds of discrimination are there? Are they the same as reality?

Oh. OH THIS IS A DOOZY

Ok alright.

The world in terms of culture is all pretty happy to co-exist. There are 10 Sectors but no one really cares where you're from. It's not uncommon for people to be of various cultural descent and you can go anywhere in the world and it won't have a completely monogamous population. So for the most part, racism/xenophobia/any kind of discrimination of culture or origin isn't really a thing.

Same goes for homophobia/transphobia/sexism. Not really a thing. I've kind of in the process of fixing surnames so women don't have to change their names in a M/F relationship and the children can have the names of either parent or both. I did make it a little patriarchal, but I'm working on it.

This isn't to say no one in Alium holds these prejudices. It's just not widespread or institutionalized.

Now ableism - that's the big one. In terms of disabilities that actually exist, there's a lot of technology available for accomodation. Stairs aren't a thing, so people who couldn't use stairs to begin with will be fine. There are gloves/sleeves/etc to help translate gesture-based languages to speech - though they are completely optional to the individual and not enforced. Any real-disability accommodations actually are taught to be entirely up to the individual, who can reject them and not be shamed or mocked for doing so. There's no push - they're just there.

But then come the powers. This is where the root of the discrimination is in TSP.

There are ones specific to a power - such as stereotypes. Telepaths, for example, are stereotyped to be mentally unstable, and most psychological hospitals are populated with telepaths. Telepaths often have to wear dampeners in certain locations. Teleporters can also be warded off. As soon as they're identified, chronokinetics (time manipulants) have their time traveling power suppressed, limited to only smaller changes.

The Class system for power rarity is also sometimes misinterpreted as a hierarchy by those who want to be seen as better for having a more rare power. In general, there are individuals who believe Their Power, or only specific powers, are superior. People with flying and intangibility and other less practical powers can be seen as inferior. Same goes for differing Levels of power - some people don't have the potential for higher abilities.

There are also traditional jobs they are expected to take. Those with superstrength should go into physical work and terrakinetics into construction.

But the most prominent is the Inutilia - the name given to those who never develop powers. If you know your Latin roots, you'd know this means useless. This is a relatively recent mutation where an Alii never develops powers - and in this society this is seen as a disability. This is where the ableism comes in. Society doesn't see a point to them.

The Big Conflict is the prejudice of the Inutilia. After decades of violence toward them, one group had enough and decided to basically attempt to overthrow the oppressive governments of the world and replace it with a new one. Another group was like "hey, how about we try to solve the prejudice without violence!?" And now the two sides are pissed at each other to say the absolute least.

Second group is the focus. As the series goes on, I deconstruct the bias in its leadership and actual more productive ways to counter the prejudice and promote equity. A lot of power corrupts themes. Hehe good luck to me lol.

So that's the basic overview of it? That was a lot. Working on this is super hard but super interesting. Figuring out all the social implications, bias, etc is a LOT. A lot of research too.

Hope that was a sufficient answer lol.

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @fairy-tales-of-yesterday

#the secret portal #tsp #teaspoon #world building #behind the scenes #prejudice #writing ask game #alium #writing blog #writers on tumblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing on tumblr #writeblr #writeblr community #ask answered

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half-man-half-lime · 6 months

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Hey, just to put the ask out- does anyone want to join the TTRPG campaign I'm running? We've been in some mini-arcs while I try to put the next big arc together (very, veeeerrry slowly), and the second of those mini-arcs is about to end, and then we'll likely take a few weeks off due to scheduling issues and resume when the arc is done.

I wish I could say it was almost done, I just took a week of half-days with my PTO to try and chip away at it, and I did make progress, but it's not there yet. At the very least, that should give anyone who's interested time to get caught up with the campaign and come up with a character?

This arc is meant to be a big turning point in the campaign as things get closer to the climax, at which point it'll be up to the players as to what to do next.

EDIT:

Anyway HMU if you're interested! Info on what's happened and what the next arc is about below the cut:

The current story- based on a comic I wanted to make for a while, the setting is based on WW1-WW2 America, featuring a team of pilots (at first , before player turnover and replacement PCs) whose society was isolated in an ancient, cracked dome, and set out looking for ways to bring their struggling population out into the wider world- all the while, a war overseas with a secretive, strange army is getting more tense.

Throughout the campaign, the players have:

Saved a literal flying circus from arson

Gotten caught up in conflict between the mob and a corrupt power company, inadvertently leading to two horrific creatures from either side being mashed together into a spiraling deer-tree abomination they had to stop

Played heel-villains in staged superhero fights in exchange for money and strange artifacts

Been morphed into story-book pirates in a patch of warped reality, fighting the ghost of the pirate who kept them trapped there

Gone undercover in a Lovecraftian town where gathered businesspeople and international diplomats planned to awaken the ancient gods, only to get caught, panick, and blow up those diplomats, pissing off multiple governments and a clairvoyant lobster-worshipping cult

Partied and fought racist square-dancing vampires in a New Orleans-inspired town's werewolf jazz festival

Handled one crisis after another at an international war summit in a Wild West theme park, from anarchist moth-worshipping cults to a disgraced Thomas Edison expy burning himself and his workers out with psychic weather machines, to stopping the kidnapping of world leaders by a teleporting sniper who was trying to stop some pretty horrible colonialist violence; and narrowly negotiated their way out of being taken in by the secret agents who came to arrest them

Linking their brains and going on a mind journey in search of one-another's forms of happiness to help one of the PCs with her lifelong anhedonia

And now concluding soon, done a stint as radio interns in a Night Vale knockoff town, working to stop a StrexCorp expy from taking over.

This next arc will have the players exploring one of many ancient, destroyed domes like the one the original party came from, sitting on a native reservation in the desert.

(I confess I've had a hard time doing the research on the real life cultures and history this place is inspired by, I'll do my best about the representation but let's just say I'm glad this one will only be experienced by a small group, I may have taken some shortcuts for inspiration.)

#Excitement and Adventure #Excitement and Adventure Spoilers #E&A Spoilers

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pitchannawarmsourblackhearts · 2 years

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Halloween Pitchanna: Supernatural/Vampire AU

The monsters rose and the world fell.

Cities still existed; humans still populated them and largely outnumbered the creatures, yes. But the world is dangerous, the days are bleak, and sunlight has all but disappeared. What is life without beauty and light in it? Survival. Merely survival. But it was what it was.

That did not stop Elsa Sommers from fighting for more. The shy young heiress finds the vigilante justice called the Guardians of Light by the civilians who knew of them, desperate for their help. She had heard they took it upon themselves to defend the weak from the monsters that lurked in the city as countryside alike while the corrupt government did little to offer protection.

Upon entering the crumbling building they occupied as their quarters, she wondered why they worked so hard to avoid interacting with civilians. Their efforts were not appreciated by local police, but they were heroes. Upon entering, she saw why.

Of them all, only their leader, North, was human. It was night's folk and other magical beings protecting them all from their own kind.

Elsa shook off any fright and begged them to find her sister. Anna had grown sick of the monster attacks on their town and ran off to get help. "What good is our power if we never use it?" She had demanded. It was one of the last things she'd said to her sister. Elsa did what she could to protect their neighbors and everyone else, as one of the aristocrats that enjoyed more comfort and safety than the common people did. Anything more would be drawing too much of the monsters' attention to her own family. What remained of it, anyway.

Anna had not cared. She had mentioned something about a new organization that killed the night's folk- a more gracious term for the monsters than they deserved- and had tried a few weeks ago to convince Elsa to join efforts with them. The Warriors of Dawn, they called themselves. Anna told her she was going to go plead with their help, offer funding and support, as she could no longer sit by and wait for their leaders to do something about the kidnappings and deaths. Just a few days prior, a servant's cousin's daughter had been taken by a male vampire as she walked home, no doubt kept alive as his concubine... as his kind was wont to do with pretty, helpless mortal women.

She left a week ago and had not returned. The scant few people that lived near the temple the Warriors resided in barely offered any information when Elsa's household guards questioned them, but the way the stuttered and avoided her eyes told her much. One farmer insisted all they did was rid the world of night's folk; another said they'd attacked a harmless werefolk family nearby; one teenage boy had called them the Cult of Dawn and spoke of a glow coming out the temple doors occasionally. Neither one of those last pieces of information settled Elsa's nerves.

The guardians were hesitant at first to help- young women disappearing was tragic, but not in their line of work. It was only when she mentioned the cult and her suspicions of their practicing magic did they listen more keenly.

Anna was the one ray of sunlight that managed to break the gloom of Elsa's life. She could not get by without her love, her courage, her strength. She didn't want to think of Anna being without her in the world, either. Anna had more bravery and trust than caution at times, and her desire to protect others superceded sense at others. Perhaps she had failed to defend her town, but she could at least save her sister and investigate the Warriors of Dawn.

They were swamped, but their second in command agreed to take the case. Nobody could identify creatures and threats like Kozmotis Pitchiner. Mostly because he had at one point been both. The other guardians had been benevolent monsters (they used magic, but were never threats to humans- not that it stopped any prejudice); Koz was a throat sucker, and had stalked, killed and terrorized before deciding to redeem himself. He still did these things... to creatures who harmed humans. It was his own experience that made him an excellent hunter, as well as his ability to tolerate most sunlight better than most creatures could.

Damphyrs were loathed by mortals and night's folk alike. They were too human to for monsters to accept, and not human enough for mortal society. Yet he would protect them anyway, and perhaps, find redemption in the thankless work.

He'd heard a rumor of a redheaded young lady seen going into the temple and managed to sneak in one day. It was modestly furnished and small... until he found a door to an underground level. He found a young woman asleep in a chamber, dressed in pure white, white as the temple, as the gossamer curtains around her bed, her face a picture of beautiful repose. So carefully hidden and sleeping in what he though was a gilded cage, she looked as though she were an angel protected by the people rather than the other way around. He approached her with uncertainty. A captive? A sacrificial maiden?

She woke. She was furious. And she wasn't about to leave the Warriors, much less go anywhere with an undead neckbiter.

Koz had promised to find and rescue her. Anna may have found herself in more danger than she knew. And the Cult may have brought out a dangerous side of the funny, brave girl Elsa had described as so full of love and innocence.

He manages to convince her to trust him and leave, though both feel wary of the other. But there's barely time to reunite with her sister and his crew. The Cult has learned a throat sucker has kidnapped their treasure. Koz realizes his charge is not safe yet, and he and Anna must work together to stop a new threat. Even when it comes from within their own side. But whatever reason the Cult of Dawn has imprinted on Anna, he's not letting them have her, and Anna sees not all suckers are evil, and this one might need her protection as much as she needs his. And perhaps a being of the night wishes for more sunlight in his life than he lets on.

***

I wanted to post this story for Halloween but realized it will obviously have to be multi-chapter, and I don't have time to do that by Halloween! 😩

#pitchanna #pitch black #anna #supernatural au #vampire au #aesthetics #rotg au #frozen au #elsa #rise of the guardians #rise of the brave tangled frozen dragons #pitch black x anna #halloween

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haywirecompass · 2 years

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Oh, no, it must be so hard to get criticism from the people your country fucked over. Let's blame Americans because it conveniently redirects the conversation away from all the other voices. Boo hoo, let's all mourn the death of a parasitic queen whose family still holds a colonial empire. Brits piss poor efforts at protest and your passive acceptance of a corrupt monarchy mean you should be exempt from mean words.

let's walk you through it one by one since you wanna miss the point so bad

1. i saw people blaming the british people for their own oppression. most of these peeps were american and/or demonstrated a lack of understanding of the history of britain and the recent law passed that has forced the general population into apathy and reluctance to protest, as well as the cost of living crisis that is forcing everyone into survival mode and unable to risk being arrested to protest.

2. i, after being on the internet for a long time and seeing our working class accents, food, etc be mocked, seeing our struggles with hot weather be mocked (though y'all were real good about it this summer, props for finally getting off your high horses), seeing our whole country be dismissed and left to rot because of the transphobia here, all of this mostly one by americans who couldn't tell me the first thing about my country, got pretty upset about seeing people blame those who have been ravaged by our government for their situation.

3. i made a rant/vent post about it.

4. some americans very understandably got angry at the accidental implication that they don't know what it's like to be under an oppressive shitty government - misguided anger but understandable. some americans got angry that i dared to insult them and their complacency in their own ignorance about other countries.

like i get it y'all are in the same boat with an awful government that's not the point of my post. my point of "not knowing our country" is that y'all couldn't even tell me the names of our political parties and yet y'all are shitting on our working class. and babes if ur not shitting on our working class then the post isn't for you and you can move on. my post isn't even meant to be a conversation it's just a sad rant after living here my whole life and seeing hopes dashed again and again.

i also really love the idea that i'm sad about the queen? i promise you i hope she rots in hell along with all the other royals and that colonised countries are able to recover from our rule and that we give back everything we took and more to help that recovery.

im allowed to be upset and angry at the way my country's people are being treated by some individuals online and im allowed to direct mean words to them. im allowed to show my emotions on my own blog. im allowed to write posts that are emotional and aren't perfectly crafted to ensure my exact point gets across and will please everyone.

please listen to the voices of the british working class and also please listen to the voices of everyone who has suffered under british colonial rule.

#y'all have GOT to know what i mean when i exclude america from colonised countries #like y'all split from colonial rule a long long time ago. it was. kinda a big deal?#whereas some colonised countries got their independence very very recently like. the 80's recently #surely y'all get what i mean that those people have been much much much more fucked over by britain #whereas america... listen britain absolutely fucked over the indigenous people but the average white american...#like yall get that right? you understand what i mean right?

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cosmicjoke · 21 days

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@syabm

Alright bitch, since you blocked me before I could reply, after whining about me blocking you, here you are anyway, just so everyone can know who the clown is defending genocide:

I think I just activated your dumb-fuck card, is what you mean.

Allow me to relieve you of your pseudo-intellectual quandary.

You don't believe me? It's literally provable by Israel leaderships own words and actions. They're attacking Rafah right now, the "safe zone" they told all the Palestinians to go to, the same way they've repeatedly attacked other supposed safe zones, refugee areas, hospitals, schools, UN buildings, etc, etc... And I didn't put "safe zone" in quotation marks to quote you, ass-hate, I put it in quotation marks because it's a sarcastic term in this context. There is no "safe zone", and your continued denial of that hard truth doesn't change the fact.

Also, you mean the same Hamas government that Netanyahu and his party are on tape discussing, talking about funding and ensuring they have support because it will make the Palestinian population easier to control? You mean that government? I guess you also think all the people that died on 9/11 deserved it because they voted for George Bush and other, corrupt and sociopathic government officials. Great logic there. Keep exposing yourself for the socipath you are. It's pretty funny to watch.

Half the population in Gaza are children, you moron. They were either too young, or hadn't even been born yet, when Hamas was voted into power, yet they're now the group being slaughtered en masse for something they had nothing to do with. You also conveniently leave out the fact that Gaza hasn't been allowed, by Israel, to hold elections since Hamas got into power. There's been no elections there since 2007. How about the consistent and constant campaigns launched by Israel against Gaza over the years, routinely flattening infrastructure, killing civilians, arresting mass numbers of people, including children, and detaining them without due process of any kind, not allowing anyone OUT of Gaza without a special permit, purposefully bombing their airports so no one can leave, firing on fishing boats that dare to stray too far from shore, and even counting the number of calories they would allow inside the strip on a day to day basis? You wouldn't know about any of that though, I'm guessing, since you continue to display your woeful depth of ignorance every time you open your mouth. But go on, keep telling me how the Palestinians brought this shit on themselves by daring to fight back against a colonial settlement forced on them by the British empire. You clearly don't know shit about Israel's history, so why do you keep talking about as if you do?

"Ah, yes, the ol' "they have no responsibility for their actions because Israel did bad things" argument."

Do you not see the absurd double-standard of this statement?

Ah, yes, the ol "they have no responsibility for their actions because Hamas did bad things", argument.

Total clown show over here.

Also, what did you do, create a second account just to harass me?

I blocked you because I've dealt with so many deniers of reality just like you who will make any and all justifications for literal genocide, and I have no desire to interact with trash human beings, sorry.

Also, Israel as it is now doesn't have a right to exist. They're squatting on stolen land and doing everything in their power to ethnically cleanse its native population, with the goal of creating a ethno-supremacist Jewish state. Hmmm, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Wonder where I've seen that before?

But again, keep telling yourself I'm the antisemite while you parrot all the same ideological fanaticism that fueled Nazi Germany. Disgusting pig.

Goodbye now. Have fun continuing to make excuses for the mass murder of women, children and men who had nothing to do with what happened on Oct. 7th. I'm sure if you whisper it hard enough to yourself in the dark of night, you'll be able to convince yourself you're not a completely morally bankrupt shit-bag.

#Palestine #Israel #genocide

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the-firebird69 · 3 months

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There are a huge number of pigs out there and they're stupid and this guy next door is an imbecile and for some reason they don't really get it sometimes we're going to go after them for what they're doing here a lot of people are today is a big day because they are laying off people in the local government and Trump is getting removed from the cabinet and the local governments the mayor of punta Gorda is laying off his people and they are thinking of stepping down too but they want them out and they don't want them taking over

-the sheriff is experiencing a large fluctuation in employees today about 50 were laid off and by the controller and you don't have to be someone else and they came in and told them to get out and they did and that was early this morning they're laying off 10 more and they are assuming control. John remillard or sheriff prumel and has done his duty they said and they told him to leave too and they said that they'll have to elect a new sheriff and he says I'm still sheriff and that's going to be a problem he said you've been fired and he told him to get out. Now this guy is a stinker and he's been leaning on her son and we want the rude piece of crap going so we're going after him and right now for rude stuff he's saying here

-the local police experience the same thing they went in and fired 30 policemen out of 40 and told him not to return to work and this includes detectives of both and they said that they are a filthy line pile of nothing and lying and doing all such a dirty things running around saying they're dangerous and corrupting everybody to do nothing and this huge problems that need to be approached so they were steaming but they left and they're going to be arrested over and over until they are gone the pseudo empire is nailing them and by population they're almost equal to the group that they're pursuing so there's a lot of lives going around and liability there probably three times the size pretty soon their fleet will be humongous they have about 14 billion chips and they're just about to pursue the warlock ships when they try and get here with their flotilla which might be here by midnight tonight

-there is a large scale attack going on on New Zealand it is vicious they eliminated 65% of the morlock there right now they are pursuing the remaining 35% and it is a vicious contest and it is going on right now and is a bombing campaign it's very violent and very big and it will hit probably 10% of them bring it at 75% loss within a day or two there won't be any trumpsters there at all they'll all be gone and they intend to do it to Australia too and they'll have a base on New Zealand where they can accrue things and pull things out that it was just sitting there rusting and they are moving on it now and that brings us to this point if he's 3% of the population and they take out all those on New Zealand and that's half is for us he'll be down to roughly 1.5% and those numbers are very bad and they're going to begin a bombing program in the Western hemisphere to eliminate primarily Trump they're trying to stop him from selling off the companies and he's got a boatload of the left no but he has several gigantic companies still and they're telling him not to and they're defeating him. More shortly

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues

I hear that you're trying to help me all the time from everybody and they're saying stupid things when I want to speak at the end of these statements they keep doing it over and over and you keep saying no go ahead so I hear what you're saying and they're doing things to you too and sometimes you have to go to the bathroom I don't like these people at all and I just want you to know that and we're trying to have a decent time and educate me and myself too and it wasn't as bad as with the max would be like we wouldn't have any life at all I do appreciate that but we do notice that these people are very very dangerous and deadly and their terrorists and they're really hard to direct but they're changing course now on to each other apparently and I do appreciate it even though he didn't do it

Hera

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spirals-within-spirals · 10 months

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Reason Why Lyrren is Fucking Awful #2: the League

Getting this one out of the way now, because I know very well I'll get people who are like "Yeah, but it's worth it! H4rdc0r3!" because travelling one of the most fucking remote and dangerous regions in the world is fine if it lets you take part in, as that one fucking mewtuber called it "The Secret Hardcore League They Don't Want You to Know About!"

Can you tell I'm peeved about this part?

Like everything, the reality is more complicated. Lyrren's league is hard, yeah, but especially for foreigners it's not a kind of difficulty that's any kind of fun.

First of all, the league is deeply important to Lyrren in many ways. For one it's part of their Journey, which is significantly more significant there than it is elsewhere. The paper I read estimated that something like 80% of people there go on one at 15. I shouldn't need to mention that that's a truly ridiculous number, the statistics I've dug up for Sinnoh are closer to half that. Back home it's pretty important too yeah, but in Lyrren it's considered a major milestone in their life, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and evolved directly from a literal pilgrimage.

And there was I, blundering in because I thought it sounded fun.

The sheer fucking vibes of "YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE" in every step of my journey there did a number on me, even without all the straight-up xenophobia. I'm honestly surprised they even let foreigners participate, might just be because they don't have a way to legally differentiate us from locals.

The second way is very literal. Lyrren is one of the few nations that still has League Rule absolutism, AKA the league is the government. It also serves as an absolutely spectacular argument against that form of government because holy fuck. It's about as competent in governing as you'd expect for a bunch of people selected for their battling skills. Way it got that way is a long story but let's just say there was a massive power vacuum, and the league was the only entity capable of even vaguely filling it.

So, an exercise for the reader. You are the head of the Elite Four. Your region has been torn apart by war, the champion is dead and no one has replaced them yet, the government is essentially gone and you've somehow found yourself the closest thing your region has to a leader. What is the first thing you do?

Cement your own power by any means that won't get the population to revolt, of course. If someone manages to climb their way through the league and beat you, they'll become your boss, and we can't have that. There has not been a champion of Lyrren in almost fifty years.

As a result of that philosophy, I've seen gym regulation in Lyrren summed up as "don't let too many trainers through." Not joking, they have one guy, and his only job is to make sure the gyms aren't too easy. And like, yes, the gyms are very difficult because of that, but not in the way other regions are. Leagues elsewhere are meant to be a challenge, but in the end it's intended that a competent trainer be able to progress through it. Lyrren's league exists to stop people from reaching its elite. It's designed to be unfair. Plus there's an age-old law against anyone with under 8 badges even setting foot on Ticsi Island, the home of the league. Which is also the seat of their fucking government. Do you smell the corruption yet?

As for the gym battles themselves, while their standards for each badge are significantly higher than most places (gym leader I challenged for the first badge had a fucking Metang), difficulty spikes and dips because the leaders decide themselves what mons they want to use for which level, doesn't matter to the league as long as not too many people get through, and apart from using weaker mons they do not fucking go easy on you. 6v6 battles from badge 2, I almost lost that one because the gym leader used several techniques I'm pretty sure would be illegal anywhere else, including painting the walls with horrific war imagery and revealing it mid-battle.

Also, because gyms are, like most things in Lyrren, handled almost entirely locally the gyms themselves can be... strange. The gym puzzle of Chaca City involves fighting a gym trainer. Like, not with pokémon. Steel-type specialists too, I didn't even dare to try. Watched it a bit, but there's only so much of adults beating up teens you can take. On top of that, apparently gym leaders often look at how you complete the puzzle to determine who they rig the match against if they need to get some wins to pump up their stats, and also whoop for me because being a foreigner pretty much automatically puts you on that list.

So let me walk you though a few steps of my hell. I arrived in Xochi City, the only port in Lyrren that allows foreign ships, and went straight to its gym, grass type. Take most of the day to finish the puzzle, a maze where you need to answer questions I assume are obvious to the Lyrrenese but I had no clue about, before getting to the leader. Fun fact: Lyrrenese badges are not internationally recognized, but apparently Lyrrenese gyms can decide to recognize international ones if they want to? Not sure if that's how it works or if he was just fucking with me. So there I was, seven-badger from Sinnoh cluelessly walking into an eighth-badge match. Another fun fact: in an eighth-badge match, Lyrrenese gym leaders are required to use their personal teams. Yet another fun fact: the gym leader of Xochi City used to be an Elite Four member. And as a side note, the Elite Four of Lyrren are sometimes called the Four Champions, and that's not an empty title.

So yeah. I got fucking annihilated. Didn't even beat his Ludicolo.

Like, I've gotten top 8 in the Lily of the Valley since then, and I still know I 100% would lose like a chump even now. From what I've read he's one of the three gym leaders people there make sure not to leave for last because their personal teams are nearly impossible to beat.

Sounds fair, right?

So let's say you make it past that. You're strong enough to get past eight gyms that are stacked against you and all the other fucking hurdles in your way (will get into more in later posts, but it's a lot), and you make it to the Spring's End Tournament. You just need to win that, and you get to challenge the Elite Four, and beat them and you become the champion of Lyrren. Hard, but possible right?

Well too bad, your journey ends there.

I could go into the caliber of trainer who participates in Spring's End (I recommend looking up recordings sometime, picture quality's shit but the battling is not), but I don't need to. Of the four foreign participants in Spring's End I've been able to find concrete evidence of, three were disqualified on the first day of the tournament for "poor sportsmanship" (read: We Don't Want You Here) and the last, some poor idiot from Unova, just straight up disappeared. I don't think they even bothered looking for the body. The league may not want anyone to have a fair shot at the championship, but, and I can't emphasize this part enough, no one wants a foreigner to become champion.

And for the record, the Elite Four matches are also incredibly stacked against the challenger. Once one is beaten the next steps in immediately to continue the fight, so not only do you have to beat four of the strongest trainers in the world, you need to beat them in a row without resting. Apparently a good two thirds of challengers lose to the first, and there's like three occurrences of anyone beating the second. The third crushed all of them within minutes of stepping onto the field. Frankly I seriously doubt any trainer alive could take on that challenge unless they got a high legend or something to join them.

So yeah. I'd call it less of a hardcore challenge, more butting in on a century-old tradition centered around a fucking mess of a system that's had a hatchet taken to it in order to fuck it up even further. Still sound worth it?

#lyrren #lyrren travel #hint: it's not #not kidding about the xenophobia btw #will talk about it later but it's really bad #travel advice #if this inspires you to go please see a therapist

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windudemon · 1 year

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star trek dilemmas and my analysis of possible answers.

1: An infamously ambitious diplomat is angling for the governorship of a new Federation colony. He has political support, but his opponents claim he knows little of governing. The diplomat has asked me to make a speech on his behalf. Should I give a positive speech, give a neutral speech, or decline to speak for him at all?

a. Give a rousing speech in support of the diplomat. (exraverted irrational feeler vibes [enfp, esfp])

b. Give a neutral speech to avoid sides. (ixfj vibes. with lesser chance could also be fe ixtps. so cautious fe.)

c. Refuse to speak at the diplomat’s gala. (if refuse real hard, polr feeling vibes. so extps and ixtjs.)

2 We found a Klingon colony in the middle of a revolt, with most of the population rebelling against what they consider to be a corrupt government. The High Council supports the colony’s governor, though Chancellor Martok has expressed some disdain for his decisions. Should I stay out of this internal conflict, support the governor, or support the rebels?

a. Avoid taking sides in the rebellion. (infp, isfp vibes because of fe ignoring and searching deeper accuracy in ethics.)

b. Support the colony’s governor. (te dom pragmatism vibes. high council is the greatest authority here after all.)

c. Support the rebelling colonists. (bold, valued, fe vibes. enfj, entp, estp, esfj.)

3. When our spaceship stopped at an andorian outpost to take on supplies, everyone we met was angry with Spock. We later learned that another version of Spock had stolen from half the people on the outpost. Should we make reparations for this counterpart’s behavior, or try to clear Spock’s name?

a. Repay the outpost for what Spock’s counterpart took. (high therefore responsible ethics)

b. Reassure the outpost’s inhabitants that Spock means them no harm. (low therefore ignored ethics. the “fact” is that spock wasn’t our spock. so logically, we own nothing to them.)

4. The Enterprise picked up a non-urgent distress call from inside the Romulan Neutral Zone. A Romulan interceptor claims to be having trouble maintaining a stable warp field. Should I cross the border to assist the Romulans, pass the message along to another Romulan ship, or ignore the distress call?

a. Cross the border and assist the Romulan interceptor. (fe and fi doms but also enfps)

b. Ensure that the distress call reaches another Romulan ship. (cautious fe vibes)

c. Ignore the distress call. (te doms first then with lesser chance ixtjs too because that’s against rules and risky.)

5. Data found an unusual substance while collecting water samples on a Class L planet. It is a viscous, acidic fluid, capable of movement, but we cannot determine whether it is sentient. Should I leave the substance on the planet, take a sample, or destroy it?

a. Leave the substance on the planet where it was found. (fi dom vibes but also exfps)

b. Take a sample back to the ship for further study. (all ti users, especially with ne.)

c. Destroy the potentially dangerous substance. (te dom. cause again, no need to take unnecessary risks. focus on mission!)

6. The fluidic sample Data collected during one of our away missions escaped containment and is moving through our power transfer conduits. Phlox believes it may be searching for nutrients, but the longer it stays in those conduits, the closer it gets to our impulse engines. Should I attempt to draw the substance out or have teams dissolve it?

a. Lure the substance out without harming it. (pretty much xnfps only)

b. Dissolve the substance before it reaches the impulse engines. (all the other types)

7. The Enterprise was asked to negotiate a dispute between a Ferengi mining company and local colonists. The Ferengi recently discovered a massive tritanium ore deposit in the same star system as a Vulcan colony. Should the mining rights go to the colonists who own this star system, or the Ferengi company who found the deposit?

a. Give the mining rights to the colonists, who own this star system. (introverts, especially rational ones: intp,infp,isfp,istp.)

b. Give the mining rights to the Ferengi company, who found the deposit. (extraverts, especially irrational ones:entp,estp,esfp,enfp)

visit my main blog @ demonwindu.wordpress.com

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hjohn3 · 2 years

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The End of the Lord of Misrule

The Legacy of Boris Johnson

By Honest John

TOM PAXTON the well known left wing 1960s and 1970s American folk singer wrote a song in 1969 called The Ballad of Spiro Agnew. It referenced Richard Nixon’s Vice President, who ultimately resigned in disgrace for tax evasion. The song consisted of one eighteen second line: “I’ll sing of Spiro Agnew and all the things he’s done.” and that’s it: no more lines. It is tempting, as the two and a half years of Boris Johnson’s premiership reaches its undignified and sudden end, to attempt to reprise Paxton and to point out what an utter waste of political and governing time has been the tawdry reign of this man and his contemptible acolytes - two and a half years of broken promises, rule breaking, nasty divisive populism and utter incompetence, in which nothing of importance was achieved. But that would be to let the horror that was the Johnson regime off too lightly, to try to pretend, like the Democrats have mistakenly tried to do in the US since the eviction of Trump, that the nightmare is over and we can all simply draw a line and, in the dishonoured Johnsonian phrase, “move on”. However, that is not possible.

Let’s first of all consider the legacy Johnson claimed for himself in his self serving non-resignation speech: the alleged achievements constantly cited by the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, and parroted, drone like, by Johnson’s fans on social media, on radio phone ins, and in vox pops on the streets of the U.K. We hear continually that “Boris”:-

1. Got Brexit done;

2. Led us through the pandemic with a fast and efficient vaccine roll out;

3. Led the world in the defence of Ukraine against Russian aggression; and

4. Got the big calls right.

It’s pretty meagre pickings even if it wasn’t being put forward by a cynical right wing media that colluded every step of the way in Johnson’s misgovernance or by individual citizens apparently deluded, in denial, or both. It also doesn’t stand up to even cursory scrutiny.

The Brexit “deal” that Johnson signed in 2020 is predicted by the Office of Budgetary Responsibility to result in a 4% shrinkage of the British GDP by 2025; direct investment from abroad in the British economy fell by 17% in 2020/21; key industries such as hospitality, fruit farming and haulage continue to experience severe workforce shortages thanks to the non availability of EU labour; a just-in-time set of supply chains, perhaps permanently damaged by the Covid contraction, have seen this impact exacerbated by trade barriers put in place following Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, adding to the cost of trade and increasing inflationary pressures. The Northern Ireland Protocol is set to be scrapped by the very government that introduced it to the negotiations with the EU. The Protocol, which guarantees frictionless trade within the island of Ireland will be sacrificed and ensure a hard trade border exists between the Republic and Ulster, to the disbenefit of both. The failure of the absurd Jacob Rees-Mogg and his confected “Department for Brexit Opportunities” to identify a single measurable and uncontested benefit of Johnson’s “oven ready” deal, speaks for itself: even under its own terms, the hard Brexit Mogg and his like drove, and Johnson supposedly got “done”, has delivered nothing.

The claim that Johnson provided inspired and effective leadership during the pandemic is even more spurious. The Johnson government’s response was characterised by chaos, incompetence, failure to take scientific advice, too late lockdowns and the award of corrupt contracts for equipment and supplies to Tory donors, marking the beginning of an endemic governmental corruption that has been perhaps the overriding feature of the Johnson regime. The much vaunted vaccine roll out was indeed impressive and owed nothing, with the single exception of vaccine procurement, to the actions of government: the NHS, Public Health and the Universities stepped up to do what they do, despite ten years of systematic underfunding by a Tory government obsessed with financial austerity, which had left our health systems uniquely exposed to Covid-19. One statistic above all should give the lie to the claim that Johnson “led us through the pandemic” like some latter day Moses: 181,000 British citizens have died of the disease at the time of writing: the highest per capita death rate in the western world outside the United States. At the last, the grotesque spectacle of law breaking at the heart of government during the height of the pandemic, tells everything that needs to be known about the extent to which this government provided leadership, moral or otherwise, in the battle against the most existential crisis facing the country since the Second World War. Johnson’s response, on just about every quantifiable measure, was an utter disgrace.

Johnson as war leader was supposed to relaunch his battered premiership in the light of Partygate but always lacked credibility, not least because the U.K. was not actually at war. The supply of British weapons to Ukraine has undoubtedly assisted that country’s resistance to the Russian invasion, but was at one with an overall NATO response of support to President Zelensky’s government. Although Johnson took numerous and transparently obvious photo opportunities in Kyiv, it is clear most of Britain’s swift response to Ukraine’s calls for help was masterminded by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and had very little to do with Johnson himself.

“Getting the big calls right” is perhaps the most commonly cited praise for Johnson by his dwindling band of followers. It is as curious as it is tedious because it implies he got numerous “little calls” wrong which, presumably included disobeying the law, being openly corrupt, trashing the country’s unwritten constitution and breaking manifesto promises by the dozen. It is a plea for perspective and tolerance and is as mendacious as it is dim witted. This man got no calls right at all, regardless of size. Instead of leadership, the country was offered excuses, deflection and lie after lie after lie. Instead of vision, it was presented with “wedge” politics, designed to pit different sections of the community against each other, while hopefully shoring up just enough votes of the frightened, the bigoted and the wealthy to give the Tories an electoral advantage under First Past The Post. Instead of competence, we were forced to watch a cavalcade of absurd self inflicted error, of dishonesty as policy and ludicrous excuses for scandal after scandal. No excuses, however, can be made, or sympathy given to a Prime Minister unique in his cynicism, uselessness and criminality. Big calls? He failed them all.

But if Boris Johnson was simply the worst Prime Minister the country has seen in modern times, then it might be possible to rebuild respect for politics after the gargantuan task of Augean stable cleaning required by his successors, but unfortunately his legacy is too malign for that. Johnson was not just a tousled haired Clown Prince that made knowing idiots laugh, he was the Lord of Misrule in all its literal malignant meaning. The damage he has wrought may take years to put right.

For the record: this is a man who lied to the head of state in order to prorogue Parliament, an act found to have been illegal by the Supreme Court; who oversaw a manifesto promise to curtail the role of that Court as punishment for daring to challenge his unconstitutional action. This is a Prime Minister, who, by changing the rules, sought to make corruption acceptable and the ministerial code of conduct irrelevant; a premier who even in the last days of his sordid regime is willing to put peace in Northern Ireland in jeopardy to deliver its hard Brexit in full and provoke a reaction from the EU he hopes can revive the feelings of antipathy to Europe he exploited so cynically in 2016 and 2019. This is a man whose government, in its dreadful Police, Crime and Sentencing bill seeks to suppress legitimate public dissent and in its Rwanda off shoring policy plumbs new depths of immorality, law breaking and racism; a government that deliberately dabbles in proto fascism. This is a man, who in his utter disregard for the unwritten conventions that hold British democracy together has set a baleful precedent one day for a serious, competent and ideologically driven successor to take Britain down a route of democratic authoritarianism.

There is nothing remotely funny or admirable about this Lord of Misrule or the nodding dogs who have sustained him, several of whom are now lining up to replace their one time hero, citing integrity and values they never once upheld when serving in his cabinet. The experience of Boris Johnson’s premiership has laid bare the frailty of the UK’s constitution and revealed deep societal divisions driven by a broken economic model, a ruinous class system and an inequality so deeply ingrained it is quite literally strangling the nation. However, if the country’s recent awful descent into absurdity and amorality achieves one good thing, it will be the determination of the non Tory majority of the U.K. to expel Johnson’s remnants, continuity candidates and apologists from power and to rebuild the sense of pride, decency and honesty, which, in the past, has driven this country’s greatest political achievements.

9th July 2022

With thanks to Val Michej for her passionate denouncement of Johnson’s resignation speech, which contributed to this piece

#british politics #boris johnson #british government #political corruption

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snzhnfall · 3 years

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let me rant for a little bit.

sb: why don’t you just leave snezhnaya if it’s that bad? why do you miss it? don’t you want to move to a place like liyue or mondstadt?

snezhnayans: family, connections, society, security, the outside world is being dicks to us so what’s better? knowing your home, your homeland, and your people where you have to survive sure but everything you love is there so you know how to live there and you know how to be safe... or go into the unknown where you don’t know how you’ll survive, how you’ll be met, know that it’ll take eternity to build up and you can’t even be sure you’ll be able to protect your family if you actually move out and do they even want to move if they’ve been there for years and years?

Basically, yeah.

#as a russian like.. the country is hard.#the society is not as educated as i'd like them to be #the government is hard on the population and pretty corrupt #some want to leave sure but its also hard to just cut it off.#i've noticed that countries like america and other european capitalist countries dont have it the same way #we're just?? we like the culture. the food. the family. the surroundings.#it's not about the ruling and economics even. it's about being born there and just having a connection to it since childhood you know #it's something so little number of people understands when i'm talking about russia #its literally about emotional childhood connection.#so i'm just sitting here sometimes and like . . snezhnayan npcs say they miss their home #and it makes me feel validated because yeah #there is a LOT more to discuss here of course.#they're treated the way they are because of the country / governing strategy and how they represent themselves #and it's also very similar to how i've been treated before in some places that i've traveled to #the go.vern.ment is how people see us and its not true for everyone #many people just.. dont care or just shrug it off about many social differences #not only that but not everyone is privileged and able to leave #the economy is the reason for that as well.#( ❆ ) ― OUT OF CHARACTER. ❞

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letteredlettered · 3 years

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Would you share a little about the ways that By The Grace engages with the real world? I know you've said before that it's not meant to be a 1 to 1 connection -- about brexit or nazism or whatever else -- and yet there are so many elements of it that feel like they're speaking to things we need to think about or are already talking about. I think you answered an ask about this early on in the writing, have your thoughts changed as the story finished? Thank you for sharing this piece!

A lot of my fics just take it as given that Death Eaters are extremely bad and that Draco having been a Death Eater was just about the most reprehensible thing a person can do. For reasons, I didn't want to do that this time. I wanted to clearly demonstrate what is so wrong with Death Eaters. The problem is, what's wrong with Death Eaters seems really obvious. You should be able to say, "Death Eaters kill people because they're different," and have it be understood that it would be hard to forgive anyone who was part of such a club. And yet, the state of the fandom feels such that you have to say MORE, in order for certain readers to understand that you really MEAN it when you say that Harry doesn't have to forgive Draco. Therefore, I wanted to use real world examples to bolster my case. One thing that I feel gets missed is that Death Eaters were just some folks gone temporarily wrong, maybe with a bad leader. This is not true. Death Eaters aren't just some folks who made some mistakes. The series shows very clearly that blood purism is institutional, that there are people who benefit from this institution, and that they desire to preserve the institution in order to preserve their power. In order to demonstrate this in the fic, I wanted to use how this works in the real world. There are smaller institutions, such as universities and companies, larger institutions, such as government, and then the larger situation of these institutions in culture and community, even on an international scale. The Auror Academy is a demonstration of a specific kind of smaller institution that is entrenched in history and tradition. Outwardly facing, it's quite progressive, but the problem is that the people who run it have connections to plenty of other institutions, such as companies (the Diagon Alley Association) and government (the Ministry of Magic). These interest cause the direction of the institution to be a little different than their outwardly facing progressive attitude. The other problem with these kinds of institutions is that, because it is historic, plenty of people have benefited from that institution, and out of nostalgia, have an interest in preserving its traditions. The obvious real world parallel here is universities, which really do a lot of good in the world, but are also deeply entrenched in corporate interests and politics, and still get money and social capital from so many that know and love those institutions due to fond memories. The main demonstration of the larger institution was the Ministry of Magic, through Fudge and the Auror Force. I was inspired to reinstate Fudge by the reelection of a particular prime minister in Slovenia. He had already served as prime minister and was ousted after wide-spread national protest and a vote of no confidence (as a result of corruption and war crimes--my girlfriend doesn't know if "war crimes" is technically accurate, but that's what she would say; she also says, "when is Hermione Granger going to be our prime minister"), but then came back into power on the wave of right wing populism that spread through Europe. Fudge himself was not meant to represent anyone in particular, but his reelection was meant to represent how crushing it is to be represented by someone who doesn't represent the will of the people you know and are familiar with. I found the Auror Force much trickier. The whole point of the Order of the Phoenix in canon is that Aurors, as an institution, cannot be trusted, as they are part of Voldemort's puppet government, and many share the interests of the Death Eater community. Therefore, I wanted to use real world examples of corruption and institutional bigotry in law enforcement, but my main understanding of that is related to US police, and the Aurors aren't police. The wizarding world doesn't have a military, and the only other means of enforcing the government's will seems to be Hit Wizards and possibly the Unspeakables. As a result, Aurors seems to be several pseudo-institutions rolled into one, and also the world they're protecting is vastly

different than ours. In the end, I wanted people to be reminded of issues with institutional law enforcement, without translating it as a one-for-one analogy, because it's not. Lastly, I wanted to address how these institutions relate to culture and the international community. I thought Brexit would be a very jarring analogy, but I wanted to use it specifically because it is so recognizable, and so polarized; I felt like if people did recognize the analogy, then it would be a lot clearer what I was trying to say. However, whether the wizarding world should expose itself is pretty different than whether the UK should leave the EU. It helped that Reveal was about joining whereas Brexit was about leaving, which I hoped would very clearly show that I was not trying to give the two concepts exact equivalence. In the end, I actually find it hard to think about whether Reveal is "right," because it's so far outside of human experience, and the worldbuilding in HP is so weak that I can't actually tell why it is the way it is, or what would happen if it were different. I do feel, fundamentally, that it's better to try to get along together than have a society completely seclude itself, no matter how different, but not a lot of time is spent in the fic actually considering ramifications, because that's not why Reveal is in the fic. In the end, I don't really feel like I did any of these things justice.

#by the grace #brexit #racism #classism

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ravenkinnie · 3 years

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TW: Drugs, substance abuse, murder, violence, the Punisher

Another potentially unpopular opinion I've seen on here (and one that I'll actually rant about) is that, Jason is the only good vigilante in the Batfam because he kills people (think the direct quote is "unlike those other feckless bitches" and something like "when you get saved by Red Hood, you know that you'll never have to worry about getting attacked by the same person again". I don't know how to explain to people that killing the type of criminals Jason killed in canon is wrong and harmful (thinking about the 80 Blackgate prisoners he poisoned - hmm you know the American prison system is pretty fucked up i'm sure they all totally belonged there /s). Like. Jason killing the Joker is one thing, but he literally hasn't killed the Joker - Dick did that, Bruce tried to, but Jason hasn't. But like some people make it out like oh, Jason being a killer is fine because he only kills people that deserve it - who, tell me who he's killing? Sex offenders and drug dealers seems to be the most common reply. And I won't touch the sex offenders but drug dealers? Have you heard of the War on Drugs? Have you seen what happens when people in power decide it's okay to openly promote the killing of drug dealers? I don't understand why people think it's fine for Jason Todd to go around killing drug dealers, as if they don't have families, don't have other things that put them in a bad situation. There's a reason why cops in the US (idk if they do this elsewhere) use the Punisher skull as their emblem - and if you advocate for a Jason Todd that punishes criminals, don't be surprised when the right wing weaponizes him against minorities and the red hood helmet starts to get painted on cop cars.

I wrote a paper on the Norwegian prison system which rehabilitates and releases even the "worst" of criminals and just... I live in the US and it seems like we (specifically white people) have such little compassion for anyone who commits crime. Even after the War on Drugs, even after we learned it was a scam, people fall for the crime and punishment rhetoric time after time. Like I live in a suburb where people are so scared of drug dealers my mom literally called our neighbor because someone cut through our yard (and she thought he looked high or something idk). Which I get it, my cousin died from a fentanyl overdose, I understand you don't want that near your kids. But incarcerating or killing drug dealers is not the answer, and I can't stand it when people take that stance on Jason. You can try to explain the 8 drug dealer heads in a duffle bag any way you want, but at the end of the day, I think the batfamily fandom needs to be more careful addressing this issue because demonizing drugs/drug dealers/drug users is literally one of the ways the American government destroys black communities.

And to think, the Jason Todd stan that this opinion came from replied to me because I commented on how Jason likes to run around in Dick's old clothes - something that has absolutely no bearing on his morals, other than he's thrifty which is a good thing actually, something like 85% of clothes ends up in landfills. Sorry for the rant, you asked for it. Sorry if anyone who sees this likes Jason Todd and is offended, you're not bad for liking him, he has an interesting story, just please don't advocate for murdering common criminals, specifically drug dealers.

AAAHHH NOO BUT IVE SEEN SOME OF MY MOOTS DISCUSS THIS BEFORE

sorry it's late and fucking hot I don't have the most comprehensive reply dbdnhd and I do acknowledge that at the end of the day this is fiction but opinions real people hold come from SOMEWHERE - and I think we have a very ingrained belief that crime/bad deed has to be punished and that there are good and evil people and good people only do bad things when influenced by evil people which is exactly the core of jason's belief - and that's interesting for a batfam character, a former robin!! I like when him and bruce are contrasted based on ethics but I don't like when it's meant to show that jason is right and bruce is wrong

batman is an extremely popular and fascinating character because at his core lies the idea that systems that are in place to 'protect' people are corrupt and it's down to individuals who can do something to go against them and look out for others - that's something that will resonate with people even if irl solution can't be to dress up as a bat and beat tf outta people shdhhshs

I have two points to make here:

a) I'm straight up a fucking anarchist who lives in the woods, thinks aliens are listening, and doesn't trust the government but I don't believe systems are corrupt, I believe they operate the way they are meant to operate to punish and control the populations that the system needs to be controlled to keep up the status quo - war on drugs is such a good example for that. drug dealer also exists as this boogeyman, this idea of an evil person waiting to corrupt and destroy the good people but the fact is: people don't get addicted to drugs bc drug dealers exist, people get addicted to drugs because something, not someone, compels them to do drugs, because something (literal us gov) introduced drugs to their communities and drug dealers are just tiny pawns in that game. additionally, many dealers are addicts themselves who got roped into selling to pay for their own use or who got pushed into the margins of society so much that drug trade is the only way to survive they can find

there are like, whole papers and books and thesis done on this so I'm not gonna act like I can analyse it in a tumblr post dhshsjsj but yeah people who think jason is right usually show this weird superiority of 'oh batman doesnt get how to fix gotham like jason does' and like... no, jason gets played like a fiddle by the system the way people he kills do, and whatever he does will always just hit the other pawns and never reach those actually at the top, those who are profitting from finding scapegoats

and like, batman comics don't have to address that bc it's comics, you can write small lmao but don't argue that jason is somehow more enlightened than bruce for killing

b) this brings a question of, if we decide that there has to be punishment for every crime, who gets to decide what punishment is right for what crime? cause there's not a single person who's infallible enough to dictate what the best approach is in every situation

and batman works best as a traumatised man who's loves his city sm he tries to work however he can to protect people from corrupt systems and offer them second chances wherever he can bc that's who batman is at his core - batman is not a punisher he is a protector and he should never be pushed into a role of the punisher bc he's not edgy enough

also bitches are so hard acting like they would kill every villain cause rip to batman but I'm different, y'all are too scared to tell the waitress your order is wrong shut the fuck up lmao the closest any of y'all have been to being batman is getting your ass beat behind the club on a saturday by brenda in her boohoo jumpsuit

#asks #drugs tw #long post

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womenofwonder · 3 years

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RWBY characters races for AUs set in our world.

How I’m going to do this: three things. The first, the city they live in Remnant. This is the least important because that leaves us with only five…maybe six places compared to our world’s hundreds of countries.

The second will be the original of their names, which they’ll have to keep in the AUs, meaning that they need some culture background for them.

The third will be their fairy tale origins.

So to start, Ruby Rose:

She lives in Vale, which is similar to France (I’ll explain why in another post maybe), but technically grew up in patch, a small island off the coast of Vale. I have no idea about Patch’s culture as we hardly ever see it, so I’m going to skip this one. We also don’t know if either Summer or Taiyang was originally from Vale.

We know Taiyang is Chinese from his name, so I’m going to say she’s half Chinese. I also wrote a western au once and really love the idea of Taiyang being an Asian Redneck…so I think I’m going to say Ruby is very, very southern just because that would be adorable.

But if you don’t want that idea I generally see Taiyang being either Asian-American or Asian-French, or Asian-British if your doing a HP AU. Summer is harder to pin down, but Red Riding Hood was originally an Italian fable, so I’m going to have her be Italian or Italian-American.

Weiss:

Weiss is German, although making her simply white America/British would work. I could see her being Russian too in some AU because Atlas fits well as Russia. For American works, Pennsylvania has quite the German population and coal mines, so that works pretty well for her.

Blake is really complicated. From Remment Australia which is culturally SEA (south East Asian), has an English name but parents with a Hindu-inspired names, but neither looking vaguely Indian. I’m going to assume her family are immigrants (as they are in cannon I think) to Australia, maybe even changed their name to help them fit in. Immigrants from where? Well, India is an option, but I like to think Malaysia. They have a large Indian and Chinese population, and I like to think Blake is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicities, from Malaysia and immigrated to Australia. And if you think this is crazy or unrealistic, you haven’t seen anything yet. The sheer mix of cultures I’ve seen growing up as an ex-pat is insane. This isn’t too crazy.

For Yang, we already have Taiyang as an Asian red-neck. Or at least I do. Raven and Qrow are going to be a little harder to pin down, but I’m think bandits getting replaced by mafia. Which mafia? I don’t know, take you’re pick. Branwen is Welsh, but I can’t think of a Welsh mafia. Coming from Mistral I would see them as being Triad, not Yakuza because Raven’s gang is famous for being less than coordinated.

If you need a logical reason for Yang having blonde hair, Taiyang could be only half Chinese, half blonde (blonde is race right?).

Either way I see Raven operating in an American city like New York or Detroit.

This would mean Yang is fully Chinese ethnically.

JNPR:

Jaune’s name and inspiration are all French. However his mother does come from Mistral (I think), so I do see him being half Chinese, but nationally French. It’s also funny to imagine him with a French accent.

Pyrrha: she’s Greek or maybe Greek-American with her parents being recent immigrants. Argus seems to Remnent-Greece and her name and fairy tale are greek.

Nora: she should be Scandinavian. I feel like in a MCU AU she’s Thor’s daughter. But she also grew up as a street rat in Mistral, which is hard to fit in our world. Therefore I’m going to have her in America, the great melting pot (and also America seems to be more like Mistral than any other Remnent king with our state system), and she going to ethically Scandinavian but knowing nothing of her culture due to her upbringing.

Ren: obviously Chinese, but I might have him be American-Chinese to fit his story nicely in with Nora’s.

Others:

Coco: we’re all ignoring that she’s based off Coco Channel, so let’s make her a LA girl

Velvet: Australia, because of the accent. Or maybe English because that is her story origin

Fox: he’s difficult, because tribes are pretty rare in modern AUs. But his story could work for various things. He’s one of the few black characters so he could come from practically any African tribe (I’m currently going with Hausa because it’s one of the few I know anything about). His name is based off ‘the fox and the hound’ which is a rare American story, so he could also be from a Native American tribe if you want the AU to be more American-based.

Yatsuhashi: Japanese, this one is thankfully easy.

Sun: Chinese. He comes from a tribe as well, but I can’t think of any nomadic Chinese tribes except the Uyghurs. Making Sun a Uyghur doesn’t make much sense but it will serve to piss off certain people on the internet. And now this is going to be taken down, isn’t it? Oh wait, this is tumbrl. This is anarchy. It won’t. Forgot why I liked this place for a second.

Scarlet: sorry for the rambling there. Anyway, Scarlet is definitely English. “I hope I don’t get sand in my shoes.”

Sage: well, he’s black, but other then that we have nothing to go one. He’s also from Mistral but that doesn’t really work? If Mistral is America as well as China I guess we can make him African American. Or whatever else works best for the AU. He might be Indian too now that I think of it. Or even Maori. Really options are limitless here.

Neptune: Yeah, so probably just American, but does have both a French last name and an Italian first name. So probably ethically American (aka white mutt). Also he lives near a port, I think I’m gonna gone with him being from Tacoma Washington because I am.

Flynt: African American

Neon: Japanese-American because of her meme (it started as part of Japanese pop song on YouTube, the latter of which is America summed up in one invention)

Oscar: Hispanic-American, he just looks it. And I’m guessing he lives in Kansas for obvious reasons. His last name isn’t Hispanic but their could be a lot of reasons for that. Or he could be Native American (Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Osage are all Native American tribes in Kansas).

Penny: well if she’s still a robot she probably stays white, but if you want her human in this AU she might end up being half black as Pietro is, although she also could just be adopted. I guess the later makes more sense, huh? I figure she’s American, with her dad working with a ‘well meaning’ but ultimately corrupt government. Probably living in DC, as that has both the government and the poverty issues.

Emerald: oohh, boy. This is hard. Sustrai is Basque, and Aladdin is a French addition to an Arabian story, she herself is dark skinned with anime features that are super unhelpful for this sorta thing.

I have three ideas. Brazilian, mostly as there’s no South American themed RWBY characters I can think of, and it’s diverse enough that someone looking like Emerald would fit. Secondly, for American centered stories she’s just an orphan with no idea of her ethnicity. Or she could be African, Indian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or some mixture between those four. It’s honestly really hard to tell. In my fanfic she’s from Suriname and ethnically 1/4 Indian, 1/2 Creole, and 1/4 Javanese.

Ilia: Sioux (Native American). Ilia means a lot of things in a lot of different languages, and Amitola mean rainbow in Sioux, so I decided to just stick with that.

Mercury: American, white mutt American. I’m guessing New York or Philli for where he grew up, it seems like a place where he’d be comfortable

Neo: the new novel reveals her father lived in vale (btw I haven’t read it, I’m just getting this off the internet) and her mother was a assassin who’s origins aren’t known. She doesn’t really have a fairy tale. So I’m going to go with British or French (thank RWBY thoughts for the first one) although in an American AU she works as just a white American.

Robyn: depends on what Atlas is in this AU, but probably German or American.

Qrow: I already mentioned he’s probably Chinese due to being from Mistral. It’s a bit weird to think of him as Asian, but not as weird as it to think of Raven as white, so I’ll take it. Although I do like the idea of him being American Irish, that’s fun.

Winter: whatever Atlas is in this AU, German or American, although British and Russian would work well too.

Maria: Mexican

Salem: If you want a AU where she’s just a normal person then New England or Italian for her story origin

Watts: British

Tyrian: uh…I have no idea, but he looks white. And he kinda has a British accent? I want him to be southern for the accent tho. Probably just another crazy American

Cinder: her fairy tale is French but her origin is Chinese. Also, Cinderella doesn’t really have an origin, it’s an ancient story with every culture having at least one Cinderella story. So I’m going to say Chinese.

Hazel: American, from the Midwest. He’s darkish so maybe he’s a POC? Part Native American or Hispanic? Idk or really care I can’t stand Hazel

Roman Torchwick: American-Italian, he runs/works for the mafia

Ozpin: American because of the whole wizard-of-Oz-thing or French, because he seems to have come from Vale.

Glynda: American or French for the same reasons Ozpin is

Oobleck: Jewish American (because Dr. Seuss was)

Professor Port: Russian, due to his fairy tale, or English, due to his style

Taiyang: already said he’s a red-neck Asian.

Raven: depending on whether you want her to be white or not, either Chinese or Irish American, like I already said.

Cordovin: Karen

Ironwood: again, depends on Atlas in the AU. Either American or German…maybe Russian

Clover: Irish-American (or German, obviously the ace-ops depend on where Atlas is. I’m just going to do the rest of them assuming Atlas is American because Germany isn’t that diverse)

Harriet: African-American, I guess. It kinda messes with the story because Harriet is supposed to be privileged, which doesn’t really work in this AU, but she’s also obviously black.

Elm: Just normal American, maybe greek-American because of the Aesop fable themes

Vine: Tibetan based on his design

Marrow: either African-American or Pakistani/Indian-American. (I’m personally going for Pakistani)

Klein: english. All butlers are English. It’s a rule.

Pietro: African-American

Johanna: Pakistani or Indian American

Fiona: Jewish-American (kinda random but while she’s obviously white she also needs to be a minority for the Faunus thing to work)

May: normal upper glass American/German

Ghira: Half Malay, Half Indian, from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia later in life

Kali: half Chinese, half Indian, but also from Malaysia

Adam: much like Fiona I’m going to assume he’s Jewish due to him being white but still needing to be a minority. German or American, again, depending on where Atlas is. Or he could be Chinese, even though it doesn’t work with his name, due to the theory that he was trafficked much like Cinder. I’m going with ethically Jewish though

Sienna Khan: Indian

Huh, I actually finished that. I’m pretty sure I was accidentally racist multiple times and apologize in advance,

I’m exhausted and starving and not thinking straight. But anyway, here it is. Your very messy guide to modern RWBY AUs. I swear this was insane to sort out.

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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I’ve been trying to figure out the best obi wan ship. They all have one slightly problematic thing this way or that. I’ve landed on the idea of obi wan and an equal is pretty top tier. But then I saw a picture of Coran from voltron. Coran and Obiwan might be a disaster but also both are dad shaped, both are bad ass, both are ginger, both have an accent. I think it could work. But another part of me is like Coran is just obi and jarjar mashed together. At the very least they hooked up.

Hey I just had restaurant ramen and Starbucks and actually feel like a human being so let's do something unnecessary but funny. I'm taking this as a challenge, anon.

Also IMO Coran has more in common with C3P0 than with JarJar

So obviously, both of these happen in Big Space, but the difference appears to be density. We see about the same complexity of culture and species interactions, but Voltron covers more galaxies. It's vaguely implied that Earth, at least, is the only planet with sapient life in the Milky Way.

I think the way I want to play this out, culturally, is that the Voltron area of the universe covers a much wider, but much more sparsely populated area, while the SW-verse is just the one very densely populated (in part because apparently humans just went Literally Everywhere) galaxy, where they didn't necessarily bother with developing the tech to go to other galaxies (except Rishi, which only sort of counts) because they haven't really even charted out their own yet. It was never contacted by the Voltron side of things because [checks notecards full of excuses] it's really far away from Altea and all that, and the Force shielded the galaxy from Galra interests because Reasons.

All this to say that the two franchises didn't interact until after the Voltron plotline was already over. We'll say it went mostly canon, except Allura survived because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck that.

We'll say that this is mid-TCW, you know, before Obi-Wan is a bundle of repressed traumas and bad coping mechanisms that's lost almost everyone he's ever loved to the dark side through death or corruption. He's still (mostly) okay! Anakin's not dark (or at least, not as dark as he could be; Obi-Wan doesn't know about the Tuskens), and Ahsoka's still in good standing and most people are alive and--and okay the army is a massive ethical violation he hates with his very soul and he misses Qui-Gon and Anakin's keeping secrets and pulling away from him every day but He's Fine, Guys.

He's Fine.

In comes a ship from not Wild Space, but beyond that. Intergalactic visitors, from the direction of the deeply concerning Force bullshit they felt a few years ago. Translation tech is decent enough on both sides that they get to talking pretty quickly. The explorer is actually a member of the Blade of Marmora, who gets the absolute most basic info (approximately this many inhabited planets, approximately this many trillions of sapients in the recorded galaxy, basic structure of the government for the past however many years, most recent conflict, etc.)

BoM person is like "cool, okay so you guys are really well set-up so I'm just gonna head back and kick this up a few rungs of the coalition ladder because this is way above my paygrade, I'll make sure you get some diplomats who can maybe help out with the whole galactic civil war situation as neutral parties."

The Voltron Coalition does send a diplomat! They, uh, also send Coran, who isn't technically a diplomat, but he's high-level.

The thing is, okay, that Coran is mostly just... passably competent at things. He's a jack of all trades, master of none type. He knows a lot of things, actually, but his practical knowledge in high pressure situations tends to be up in the air. He knows how to fix the Castle Ship and various technologies, but all of that info is ten thousand years out of date. He was a competent fighter at one point but these days his back gives out. He's very knowledgeable regarding intergalactic politics but, again, that information is ten thousand years out of date. He's also a little prone to social gaffs in dicey situations (e.g. the inciting incident in the Voltron Show episode where he misses the single day with clear skies), but puts in so much goddamn effort to make things happen.

In this manner, he's like a warped mirror of what Obi-Wan is and could be.

THAT SAID

Coran is actually really good with teenagers, and specifically with training them.

And Obi-Wan... isn't.

Obi-Wan's snarky and snippy and sassy, and he's decent enough at teaching and he's great at being a jokey friend and all, but he's not necessarily very good at emotions. And unfortunately for Obi-Wan, the teenagers he spends the most time with are Really Full Of Emotions. He tries, bless him, but he's just... he doesn't respond well to emotional conversations at the best of times.

His son-figure saying "You're like a father to me" leads to a response of... radio silence. Guys. That's not the mark of a man who knows how to talk about his feelings with the people he cares about.

In swans Coran with the various other diplomatic envoys of the visiting extragalactic community. The entire situation is really leading to a lull in the war because nobody wants to risk pissing off this clearly well-funded, well-powered third party. As a result, many of the High Generals can interact with the envoys, even if they spend quite a bit of time eyeing the Separatist representatives on the other side of the room, because clearly Everyone Needs A Seat At This Table.

It's a very tense situation.

Obviously, Coran is exactly the weird uncle that goes around telling plausibly-exaggerated stories about Weblums and Yalmors and Balmeras. I'm going to say at least one former Paladin is there, maybe Hunk. Hunk's fun, and also very willing to help Coran make friends and seem Amicable instead of Distant by correcting some of the exaggerations. There's a nice, calm atmosphere in a bubble around Coran and his nonsense, and it's a weird situation but arguably just... you know. It's good. He's good at making people feel safe around him.

Cue the hissed argument between Skywalker and Kenobi. The actual cause of said argument isn't important, just the fact that, in a dark corner where they're less likely to cause a PR issue, Anakin and Obi-Wan are having it out. Anakin's maybe twenty, still a lanky ragebaby, all that fun stuff. Obi-Wan is a the endpoint of every too-young brotherdad. He's thirty-six but feels like he's sixty-three. He's tired, but trying so damn hard to still connect with Anakin and just--just--

Obi-Wan gives himself a few minutes to calm down before following Anakin. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, really, but he has to mend the bridge before it frays even more than it already has. If Anakin goes to Palpatine for advice again, he's going to... do something. Obi-Wan isn't sure what, but he just has to fix this.

What he finds is... well, Anakin did end up going to vent to a man of an earlier generation who acts like a slightly eccentric older relative, but it's not Palpatine for once.

The goofy, slightly abrasive but mostly charming, brightly-colored representative of the Voltron Coalition is standing in the little balcony that Anakin's made it to, listening as Obi-Wan's recently-knighted padawan vents. The man nods and makes noises at the appropriate times, and then asks questions that are... maybe a little too accurate.

"You said that you view him as a father, that he raised you after you left your mother."

"Well, yeah, but he doesn't think I'm ready, or--"

"No parent ever does."

"...my mom thought I was ready to become a Jedi."

"I can't speak for your mother," the representative says, "but the princess of my people, Allura... I half-raised that girl from the beginning, and after the destruction of Altea, we were all the other had left. I watched her lead battles and bring life to planets, trying to rebuild a universe out of the ashes of what we'd left behind... I saw the evidence with my own eyes, and I still, every time, I worried for her."

"Why?"

"I worried that she'd be hurt, that she wasn't ready, that she'd make a decision she regretted. Often, she did, and I had to help her back up, and while she's always come back, stronger than before... she is the closest thing I have ever had to a daughter, and I will always worry for her. Every parent does. Do you think, perhaps, that your own Jedi Master, that you consider a father, may worry because he looks at you like a son? That it's not that he doesn't trust you, but that he doesn't trust the world around you?"

Obi-Wan feels his heart in his throat.

The conversation continues in that vein. While Obi-Wan can't say he likes the fact that this stranger is putting words in his mouth, if only as hypotheticals, he can't deny that there's a part of him that relaxes as Anakin does, as every frustrated fresh-knight question gets a measured elderly-steward response that's angled to consider the interpretation that favors Anakin and Obi-Wan in equal measure. Every word encourages Anakin to talk things out and lay boundaries and express his frustrations to Obi-Wan in the plainest words possible.

There's a story in there, more than one. The representative tends to go off on tangents, ones that Anakin sometimes finds interesting and sometimes just resigns himself to. Mostly, though, it goes well, and Obi-Wan... well, he's always been 'a nosy little bastard,' according to quite a few people.

(In his defense, the terms they'd used about Quinlan's 'investigative personality' had been quite a bit stronger.)

He eavesdrops to the end, and Anakin doesn't notice at all. Obi-Wan's not sure if he should try to address Anakin's lack of awareness of the world around him. He's not technically Anakin's master anymore. The comment may be taken as a criticism of his worth and capability, rather than a sincere desire to see his padawan not die.

He approaches the representative instead. He intends to introduce himself. Instead, the first words that tumble out of his mouth are:

"How do you do it?"

The man--older than he looks from a distance, more wrinkles than the bright hair would suggest, but not quite elderly yet--turns and lifts a brow. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry, I'm--" Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young man you were just talking to is my former padawan, er, my former apprentice. I've been finding it harder and harder to speak with him over the past few years, and it seems that every interaction we have leads to an argument. How do you... manage that? I can't get him to listen to me at all."

"Ah, teenagers," the man sighs.

"He's twenty."

The representative pauses, and turns to him. "Are you the one he says raised him? The father?"

"Well... yes, I suppose that's one way to phrase it," Obi-Wan says, eyes darting to the side. He doesn't know how to explain the whole attachment situation to someone who barely knows what a Jedi is. He has even less of an idea of how to explain his own broken ability to speak of emotion, the parts of his mind that Bant clucks over and attributes to his own complicated relationship with Qui-Gon. "I had custody as his primary guardian from ages nine to nineteen and was the primary individual for handling his schooling, health, and general upbringing."

"That sounds to me like a very convoluted way of saying you were his father in all but name."

Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm not exactly old enough to be his father, and I wasn't exactly the person he was supposed to learn from; I was the... back-up option."

"It seems he cares for you very much."

"He didn't have much of a choice," Obi-Wan says, with the kind of helpless smile and awkward shrug he's long gotten used to sharing with people when they ask. "And I assure you he'd have been happier with the man that was meant to teach him."

"I'd say that the 'would have' in this situation is much less important than what is," the representative says. Obi-Wan probably should have paid more attention to his name. "I wasn't in a position to define my relation to Allura or her father in the way that truly suited our situation, by... oh, tradition, social norms, public relations, take your pick. I was a very well-regarded official, of course, but I wasn't royalty, not even nobility, and I certainly wasn't wasn't legally or publicly part of the family. But for all the limitations there, I was still able to find ways to tell her and her family what they meant to me, and they in return. Your apprentice cares for you very much, and I'm sure you care back, but I'd hazard quite the guess that you've no idea how to tell him that."

"I... I shouldn't," Obi-Wan says. "I'm fond of him, of course, but I've no wish to smother him, and to simply say it would be undignified. I imagine he'd laugh in my face."

The representative raises one eyebrow and takes a sip of his drink.

"Master Kenobi," he says carefully. "Might I suggest you go find your young man, tell him you love him, and perhaps give him a hug?"

Obi-Wan's face flares red. It's been years since anyone short of Yoda has spoken to him like that.

"I'm not a child," he sniffs, trying to angle enough away that the blush isn't as noticeable. He's damnably prone to such things. "You're not that much older than me."

The man laughs, and Obi-Wan lifts his glass to his lips in a futile attempt to hid the embarrassment a little more. "Oh, not counting the stasis, I've well reached the age of six hundred and twenty-four, my boy!"

Obi-Wan chokes on his drink.

The man laughs a little more, but thumps him on the back until he's breathing normally again.

"Yes, most of the humans I've told have had quite the reaction!" the representative assures him. "But yes, even with the times adjusted to what any given local year is, I am significantly longer-lived than most species."

"No kidding," Obi-Wan manages. He wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and looks over at the representative. He takes in the wrinkles and bright eyes, and says, "Well, I must say you look very well for a near-human of such an age. I can only name one person in that category that has managed better, and I haven't seen her since I was a child."

"I shall take that as the compliment it's intended to be," the representative says, twisting the edge of his mustache and beaming.

The man is... well, goofy, really, and quite a bit older than Obi-Wan had thought, but he's quite the charmer. Obi-Wan faintly compares him to a few different people in the back of his mind, but nothing quite fits. For all that the man is quite the jokester and--going by some things he'd seen from the corner of his eye in the main party--a master of physical comedy, the representative is actually more competent than he looks, and for all his visible age, not bad to look at. He is also, seemingly, an expert in dealing with teenagers and young adults, something Obi-Wan himself is... decidedly not.

He really should go speak with Anakin.

And there's a war to fight.

He doesn't really have much time, even with the recent lull.

He's in no place to be looking at the clean-shaven jaw and wondering what it would feel like under his lips, or to let himself consider whether this man would be the kind to have an hours-long discussion as to the narrative forms common in other galaxies, and whether they have anything paralleled to those in Obi-Wan's own, or if this man would show the same enthusiasm over teas that he'd shown over the hors d'oeuvres inside.

He should... really go find Anakin.

"I suppose it's time to find my padawan," he says, more to fill the air than anything. "Er... thank you, both for speaking with him, and for speaking with me."

"Not a problem at all, Master Kenobi!" the representative says, and Obi-Wan realizes that there's one last thing he may have... forgotten.

"This is terribly embarrassing, but I don't believe I caught your name?" Obi-Wan says.

"Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service!" the man says, with a sweeping bow. "As you can imagine, most simply call me Coran."

"Then I insist you call me Obi-Wan," he says, and before he can stop himself, "Might I bother you with an invitation to a shared tea time? You seem a knowledgeable fellow, and I'd appreciate the chance to... eh, pick your brain, shall we say."

It's not the smoothest come on he's ever put out there, or the most easily interpreted, but... well. Perhaps it's for the best. He's rather often found his tastes going in irresponsible directions, and it'll be much easier to brush this off without diplomatic incident if there's room for Coran to politely ignore the less platonic options.

Obi-Wan hopes he doesn't.

It's very selfish of him, but a dalliance with an older gentleman... well. He does, perhaps, make such irresponsible decisions, even now.

"I do believe I'd enjoy such a thing!" Coran enthuses, grabbing Obi-Wan's hand and shaking it in large, effusive movements.

Oh, this is a terrible idea, Obi-Wan thinks, even as he exchanges comm numbers and says goodbye.

Still.

He likes the idea of having at least a little fun, sedate or less so, while they have some time to themselves.

#Obi Wan Kenobi #Coran Smythe #Coran #coran hieronymus wimbleton smythe #anakin skywalker #Star Wars #Voltron #crossovers #Phoenix Posts #Phoenix Answers Asks #parenting

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druid-for-hire · 4 years

Photo

new hadestown au: BIKER ! EURYDICE, in which she’s a rogue lone-wolf biker dwelling in the urban jungle of a Neo Tokyo-type city called Hadestown, wracked with biker gangs, violence, poverty, corruption, and civil unrest, still recovering and rebuilding from an apocalyptic event many years ago. Heavy-handed with the AKIRA inspirations here, haha.

She fights for herself on the dangerous streets, an illegal racer with a consistent top-three placement and a reputation for ferocity that earns her the money she needs to scrape by. And then she meets Orpheus: a dopey bartender who has no place being in her business.

okay okay okay i’m gonna be jumping around a lot here. be warned. thanks @supercantaloupe, @regzillas, @birdmanlyss for your contributions! (sorry if i missed someone it’s been a while)

she's a lone wolf in a city infested with biker gangs and it's brutal

she's run over plenty of limbs in her day

then there's orpheus, this gentle, kind-hearted soul, an indie musician and shes like. fuck. now i gotta keep this bastard safe

puts a long pipe with a mess of bolts and metal on the end in his hands and tells him he'd better buckle up and learn to fight the road

this sort of thing is common among biker gangs to cause destruction and knock people off their bikes onto the road. other types include mallets, hammers, baseball bats, etc

shes small but knows a lot of self defense and is very good at handling herself on the road

besides teaching orpheus to steel himself and yes use that pipe on people, push them off and jam it in their wheels and let it break if it does, she's gotta teach him to hold on while she pulls all this crazy shit on her bike

she avoids taking him on the road because having to fight people gives him so much stress but he also stresses about her so it's all weird

the first time orpheus sees her run over someones arm hes like ""???????????????????!!!!!!!!"

"Don't worry it doesn't happen often" "WHAT IS 'OFTEN'"

she has a red songbird on her helmet and flowers on her jacket

and flowers painted on her bike too probably

or patterns like on the album cover

orpheus thinks it’s the prettiest shit he’s ever seen

so eurydice races, right? everyones like “who is this tiny little upstart” and then she takes off her helmet and shakes out her hair and everyone loses it

somethingsomething ig hades (who is something of a crime boss here, similar to Tombstone from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, but not so unambiguously villainous in nature) becomes a contractor and he catches her in like, a bad contract that's hard to get out of without some kind of consequence

and now orpheus has to topple a capitalist again

anyway she like, meets orpheus in this little bar he works at

it's about lower middle class, so it's not too bad but it's still mostly populated by like, poorer people and bikers, etc.

they meet and it's cool and fun blah blah Come Home With Me shit

also this is a scene:

biker!eury: we gotta cross through downtown orpheus: what???? but there's a riot going on there! right now! eury: that's too bad, it's the fastest way! that's why you get this! (tosses him her pipe weapon) orpheus, barely catching it: sajskhsfdfs ???? eury: and i am gonna take this. (kicks open a trunk and takes out a rifle) orpheus: ???????!!!!???!?? WHERE DID YOU GET THAT AND DO WE REALLY NEED IT eury: Yes we do now come on orpheus: H-HOW did you get it eury: (loads gun) no worries orpheus: No i have many worries HOW DID YOU--

actually, on this emergency ride, orpheus proves surprisingly competent with her pole weapon—ruthless even, and eurydice wonders just where and how the hell he learned that

the conversation she has with him about that is the same one where he shows her his old, old scars

(besides ruthless—orph has apparently learned how to pose and intimidate. he does stuff like putting the tip of the pole-pipe to the asphalt as they’re riding, skipping on the road and creating sparks)

eurydice loves her bike more than certain relatives

certain complications lead to it being destroyed by hades as punishment for doing him wrong. and it destroys her. that is her most trusted sacred bike, that thing has been with her since she was a teenager

once she repurposes that devastation into white-hot anger orph has to physically restrain her from hunting hades down and breaking his kneecaps with a thick lead pipe

he's never seen her this absolutely devastated and furious

he goes to persephone for more work because he wants to buy eurydice a new bike

he keeps it a secret from her until he leads her out to a garage, hands over her eyes

(some of these bits are copypasted from my friend @regzillas)

orpheus takes his hands off and says Tada!!! it's just like the old one, there's no painted birds but she can do that. She just stands there in total silence mouth open, and orpheus goes 'so? do you like it?' before she bursts into tears. and at first orpheus is like :O!!!!! oh no!!! do you not like it? and eurydice through sobs just says 'nobody's ever done something like this for me’

it's... beautiful, it's touching, it's deep and it's love and she's so in love and she loves him so much, and she cries and holds him close and takes him in and she's so overwhelmed by her emotions, full of the care that orpheus so freely gives to her; and it's a breath of newness, fresh air in the cycle of dread and bitter anger that haunts the city (but she's still going to find hades and shoot him in the foot)

he just holds her and kisses her head

they spend the day painting it, the day after he buys the bike

hand-painted. and they both leave their handprints in paint on it, like carl and ellie do on their mailbox in the beginning of Up

a significant amount of time is spent thinking of a good name

theres lots of joking and eurydice playfully shoves orpheus and he falls over into paint

okay i wrote something like. Obnoxiously long for orpheus. i sort of have his backstory in this down, but i don’t have anything for eurydice unfortunately :( suggestions are welcome! but first: Hermes

biker!au hermes owns a chain of bars, several of which find their patronage among the ruffian youth, several of which are more refined and serve the middle class, and another several of which serve the upper crust hermes has a hand in every world and it serves him pretty well, and his chain is a bit of a channel of communication and its unspoken rule that whatever socioeconomic class or gang or organization you're a part of, hermes' chain is neutral territory no fighting allowed

eurydice walks in and hermes just gives her a Look and taps the 'no fighting' sign and she huffs

hes >:( if anyone does try to start shit. the honor system is strong enough that usually the other patrons will just throw them out, and if there are really problems, they'll hear from hermes personally

he maintains a very strict "no bitching in my fucking kitchen" atmosphere

and now, Orpheus

this really is kind of akira but without the government conspiracies; the city is a neon corrupt hellscape that’s still struggling to rebuild after an apocalyptic event that wiped it all through. the city is wracked with frustration and violence and anger, there are still urban ruins everywhere and the scars of rebuilding and struggle are plain in every corner of life; plain to see are the shells of ruined buildings, gigantic boats levelled from the sea and left in the middle of inland sectors.

orpheus was abandoned by his mother at an early age—kind and timid, he had to learn fast how to be suspicious and cautious in cruel ways. he couldn’t land himself a spot in any of the groups that other ragtag raging folks had eked out for themselves, still too hesitant or ungraceful or young for any of them. sure, he made friends, sitting and talking with lots of people, but never got to really team up—all he could do was just fight for himself in the blown out corners of the city. weapons made from whatever he had. a young child already spitting blood and teeth in hadestown’s vicious ground-floor landscape.

hermes is his mother’s close old friend, though the times they see each other are few and far between. when he saw him, hermes hardly recognized her son, wild-eyed and clawed and alone in one of the city’s more dangerous neighborhoods, with a pole full of screws slung over his back. how did she lose track of her kid for so long? he thinks. and takes him in.

hermes eventually realizes that his mother didn’t lose him. meanwhile, tiny orpheus, kind-hearted orpheus, despises hermes at first. he’s full of suspicion and desperately wants to lean into hermes’ kindness, but the streets have taught him to hold back. he spits curses at him, though the words slide right off hermes’ shoulders. it’s not genuine. just frustrated. and picked off of the delinquents that were his friends, just like most everything else about him.

(hermes knows he’s gotten his trust when orpheus starts getting soft, when he’s crying over littler things; it means he’s been deemed safe to be vulnerable around, and he damn near starts crying himself.)

orpheus owns a little vespa! it’s covered in stickers, some of them worn out and old, some places with just the adhesive and the fuzzy white paper from where he tried to pull them off. some of them aren’t even proper stickers and just shit he peeled off from places while he was wandering around and stuck onto the vespa

even in canon i see him as the kind of guy who like. you look at him and think jesus how is this guy still alive he’s so noodly and soft, but he’s unexpectedly sort of street smart

anyway i mentioned this before but didn’t elaborate. biker au orph, to eury's surprise, does have his collection of scars, since he had a bit of a rough go at life

also he’s just ungainly and runs into shit

you can see em on his sketch page. he has a bit more than what’s shown, but what’s visible is a little slash across the bridge of his nose onto his cheek, and two on his left forearm. he probably has a stab scar in his side from just getting fucking knifed. the ones on his left forearm are from when a drunk coming out of a bar charged him with a fork

eurydice also has scars. kind of hard not to with the kind of life she lives

ok thats it. For Now. i don’t know how persephone or the fates or the workers factor in, if at all. I barely know how Hades factors in, mostly what i’ve said so far and that he does what he does to support himself and persephone. ah well! just have this

as this is extremely based off of AKIRA, i verily recommend listening to the movie’s soundtrack. besides the fact that it slaps hard as hell, the opening song, Kaneda’s Theme, has the perfect vibes for the city and the tone of eurydice and orpheus riding at night through it

#hadestown #hadestown art #hadestown fanart #hadestown au #broadway #musicals #biker au #my art #this au first came into being because i wanted eurydice with fingerless gloves

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